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Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

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Come on, man.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

In my day, never was longer.

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Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Let me file that under fuck it.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

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I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

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Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: It Gets Better

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: It Gets Better

by Anne Laurie|  December 11, 20184:53 am| 124 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Proud to Be A Democrat, Daydream Believers

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“We know that if we want to live in a world that looks more like Wakanda, the first step is you invest in some women and girls.” #WakandaForeverhttps://t.co/aSyj6GPrFT

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 10, 2018

Turnout was insane in 2018. Highest for a midterm in 100 years… and looked more like presidential than midterm turnout compared to other elections since 18 year-olds got the vote in 1971. https://t.co/DYCzvV9pIM pic.twitter.com/Dwv1ehyKQQ

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) December 10, 2018

I believe a “smocking gun” is the proof of a plot waged by morons everyone else laughs at. https://t.co/f8p9Bpr4Iv

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) December 10, 2018

Where there’s smock, there’s liar.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) December 10, 2018

Raise your glass if you aren’t being investigated by the FBI or under the control of Russia. #SheWon #StillWithHer pic.twitter.com/X0wqbuFwV6

— Hillary Is Coming! (@HillaryIsComing) December 10, 2018

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Reader Interactions

124Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2018 at 5:13 am

    Good Morning, Everyone ???

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2018 at 5:28 am

    Remember the days when people worried about having a President who was under investigation by the FBI from day 1 of their administration? We were so innocent….

  3. 3.

    Cermet

    December 11, 2018 at 5:29 am

    Rather, good morning, Jackals.

  4. 4.

    WereBear

    December 11, 2018 at 5:35 am

    Will we get to see what government looks like without Rusiian puppets pretending to be legislators?

    Because the NRA has been funded for so long, what about the rest of the Republican party?

    Think we need to nuke it from space.

  5. 5.

    Cermet

    December 11, 2018 at 5:37 am

    In good news late yesterday, the Inferior court sided with Plan Parenthood by refusing to hear the case (letting the lower Fed court’s decision in favor of PP.) A surprising 6-3 win – so Planned Parenthood gets to keep their Medicaid funding. Extremely interesting that Kavanaugh besides Roberts, sided with the other less conservative/liberal judges to make it a majority decision. So far, this Kavanaugh hasn’t exactly been far right as I suspected he would be. Not that he won’t do all to restrict Roe but he isn’t in any sense like the other three far right loons. Even sided against a tRump issue a little while ago. I call that good news (for now, at least.)

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    December 11, 2018 at 5:40 am

    Expanding the meaning of the term holy rollers.

    Two nuns stole $500K for trips to Las Vegas. But the church doesn’t want them prosecuted

  7. 7.

    Sab

    December 11, 2018 at 5:45 am

    Werebear,

    OT followed your advice about seeing a vet for cats who pee where they shouldn’t. Bingo.

    Our guy probably has hyperthyroid, so he isn’t just being extremely tempermental. Losing weight, being cranky, peeing a lot, drinking a lot, ravenously hungry, and not keeping up on his grooming.

    Not just hating his new house and cat companions. He actually has a treatable (but serious) medical condition.

    Thanks. Without your advice he might have just wasted away with us mad at him. I am not sure if you gave the advice to me or someone else, but it sure fit. Thanks.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2018 at 6:04 am

    @NotMax:

    Meyers said the pair apologised for the theft when confronted and were cooperating with an investigation. He said they and their order, the Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet, had promised to pay back the money.

    Wondering how a pair of nimble fingered nuns who have taken a vow of poverty are going to come up with $500K.

  9. 9.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 11, 2018 at 6:17 am

    @Cermet: While I share your skepticism about Kavanaugh, sometimes justices don’t turn out to decide cases like the folk that appointed them figured they would. See Warren, Earl and Souter, David.

  10. 10.

    Schlemazel

    December 11, 2018 at 6:27 am

    @Sab:
    My favorite of all time started peeing everywhere for no reason. Went to the vet & they found bladder stones. It was a simple fix and it solved the problem. It is a relief for them but also for us, glad your kitty got the help he needed.

  11. 11.

    p.a.

    December 11, 2018 at 6:28 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s a lot of bingo nights.

  12. 12.

    Schlemazel

    December 11, 2018 at 6:35 am

    @NotMax:
    In the decade or so after casinois opened on reservations around here there were a dozen or so cases of people going to jail for embezzling to pay for their addiction. Almost all were middle aged to older women, most were bookkeepers or admins with the keys to the companies bank account & all thought they would eventually pay it back when they won big. It is an illness.

    The “Grand Casino” used to run feel good ads “Tell us your Grand Casino story”. with people who rubbed luck charms before winning or other BS. I wanted to make a parody with a close shot of some nice grandma talking about how she enjoyed the rush of winning and then as she discussed ‘borrowing’ money to get the next win the camera would slowly zoom out revealing her in an orange jump suit & then behind bars.

  13. 13.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 11, 2018 at 6:38 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Wondering how a pair of nimble fingered nuns who have taken a vow of poverty are going to come up with $500K.

    Parishioners pay-to-pray by force of habit?

    Vestry lets it ride again!

  14. 14.

    JPL

    December 11, 2018 at 6:39 am

    @Schlemazel: When I was younger, my father would give me a few coins for the slot machines the local Elks lodge would keep in the back room. I didn’t understand the fascination, because you put money in and seldom received anything back. Periodically the Elks police would remove the slots, but they’d always reappear.
    This older woman learned the rules of the game early on.

  15. 15.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 6:44 am

    Hello All. My poor students are taking my final exam today. Then their poor professor will start judging them. As my friend says, “We teach because we love it! And they pay us to grade.”

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    December 11, 2018 at 6:47 am

    The Post published an op-ed last night signed by a bipartisan group of 44 former U.S. senators. It urges the current/future senate to put the nation’s interests ahead of party or self interest.

    The Senatortoise from Kentucky and his venal, spineless crew won’t heed their former colleagues’ plea anytime soon, of course — Trump is rocket fuel to push their plutocratic agenda, and that’s more important to them than the country.

    But I’m glad the ex-pols weighed in. It’s an accumulation of small but extraordinary gestures like that which can make the formerly unthinkable thinkable.

  17. 17.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 11, 2018 at 6:54 am

    @Immanentize: My roommate in college was the grader for one of the classes I took, he graded the finals for my class while I was studying for my next final in the other room. He let me know when he got to my blue book and told me that he’d ring a bell everytime I got an answer wrong. I heard a great deal of bell ringing. I think I got an ‘A’ in the class.

  18. 18.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 6:56 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: ouch. But nice outcome

  19. 19.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 11, 2018 at 6:58 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: ha—friends are the best!

  20. 20.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 11, 2018 at 6:59 am

    @Immanentize: He was just giving me shit, he told me I did pretty well on the final.

    ETA:@Steve in the ATL:
    @Immanentize: He ended up going to law school

  21. 21.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 11, 2018 at 7:00 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    The Post published an op-ed last night signed by a bipartisan group of 44 former U.S. senators …
    But I’m glad the ex-pols weighed in. It’s an accumulation of small but extraordinary gestures like that which can make the formerly unthinkable thinkable.

    Agreed. The champions of basic human decency and justice been a long time suffering under the yolk of the repugnant outlandish criminality of our epically idiotic age but: This moment, now, feels like an inflection point. To me, anyway.

    We ain’t outta the woods, course, and a lotta bad shit’s gonna go down before it’s all over, but I’ve begun to see a way out. Little gestures, in aggregate and accumulation, shift the political landscape.

    And, thankfully, courage is contagious. More of this, please.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    December 11, 2018 at 7:01 am

    Here are the 44 senators who signed the letter:

    Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), Richard Bryan (D-Nev.), Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), Max Cleland (D-Ga.), William Cohen (R-Maine), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Al D’Amato (R-N.Y.), John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), David Durenberger (R-Minn.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Wyche Fowler (D-Ga.), Bob Graham (D-Fla.), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Gary Hart (D-Colo.), Bennett Johnston (D-La.), Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Paul Kirk (D-Mass.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), David Pryor (D-Ark.), Don Riegle (D-Mich.), Chuck Robb (D-Va.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.), Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), John W. Warner (R-Va.), Lowell Weicker (I-Conn.), Tim Wirth (D-Colo.)

    I bolded the GOP senators, cuz there are less of them. Some, it’s interesting they’re still alive (Al D’Amato? Larry Pressler?) cuz we never hear about them any more.

    Good on them for signing. Now it’s going to be fun to figure out the living former US senators who declined to sign.

  23. 23.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 7:02 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: We could use a little bell function here in comments sometimes….

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    December 11, 2018 at 7:03 am

    @NotMax:
    The parishioners and the Crurch may feel a religious duty to forgive Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Lana; but they committed a crime, a serious one, and the secular state of California has a clear duty to prosecute them. Let them make restitution — without help from their order, which is not a guilty party in this case — and then they can petition the Governor for a pardon.

  25. 25.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 11, 2018 at 7:06 am

    Raven, you around by any chance?

    Been windy like the surface a Venus here in my neck of the woods; Weds. sposed to be another 45 knots with gusts to 60, 41-footers offa Cape Edgecumbe.

    Would love to hear some southFla. doings.

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    December 11, 2018 at 7:07 am

    George Allen, Virginia and Macaca. Did not sign.

    I don’t really see any former Republican senator from the south on that list, other than the marvelous John Warner. (Love him!) Missouri is as far south as it goes. (John Danforth)

    I don’t see any Texans. I don’t see David Boren, former Democratic Senator from Oklahoma.

  27. 27.

    debbie

    December 11, 2018 at 7:09 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    it’s also a sad reminder of how things used to be.

  28. 28.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2018 at 7:26 am

    @NotMax:
    Needs to be a movie

  29. 29.

    WereBear

    December 11, 2018 at 7:28 am

    @Sab: Thanks. Without your advice he might have just wasted away with us mad at him. I am not sure if you gave the advice to me or someone else, but it sure fit. Thanks.

    You have made my day! So glad everyone is doing better now.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2018 at 7:28 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    which is not a guilty party in this case

    Oh, their guilty all right. I say smack the shit out of them for all the other times they got away with it.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2018 at 7:32 am

    @Elizabelle: 10 out of 44, not even one quarter. Of course if you throw Lieberman in with them, and why wouldn’t you, that gets them to the 25% mark.

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2018 at 7:32 am

    And?
    So?

    Grant Stern (@grantstern) Tweeted:
    House GOP minority leader Kevin McCarthy states that if campaign finance crimes are a violation then lots of Congressmen (probably in his caucus) will have to go.

    https://t.co/LQw3G9zM8w https://twitter.com/grantstern/status/1072234344666841088?s=17

  33. 33.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2018 at 7:33 am

    To make you smile ??

    Paul Bronks (@BoringEnormous) Tweeted:
    Sneak Level: over 9000.

    https://t.co/yu7ShWx0Q4 https://twitter.com/BoringEnormous/status/1071830997245734913?s=17

  34. 34.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 11, 2018 at 7:34 am

    @Cermet:

    In good news late yesterday, the Inferior court sided with Plan Parenthood by refusing to hear the case (letting the lower Fed court’s decision in favor of PP.) A surprising 6-3 win – so Planned Parenthood gets to keep their Medicaid funding. Extremely interesting that Kavanaugh besides Roberts, sided with the other less conservative/liberal judges to make it a majority decision. So far, this Kavanaugh hasn’t exactly been far right as I suspected he would be. Not that he won’t do all to restrict Roe but he isn’t in any sense like the other three far right loons. Even sided against a tRump issue a little while ago. I call that good news (for now, at least.)

    While it’s good news, my take is the SC simply declined to hear the most controversial cases. In my jaundiced view, especially re: Kavanaugh, think this non-action by the court is more attributable to cynical calculation than any glimmerings of enlightened behavior.

    Be plenty of time for the Roe-bots to undermine if not expunge womens’ agency once things settle down. Expect for Kavanaugh, it’s just a dream deferred, n his hopes of being the boss of all womanhood shall not dry like a raisin in the sun.

    (Be delirious to be wrong on this’n, course.)

    But when you watch that entitled douchebro in all aspects of his public comportment (to say nothing of his jurisprudence record), from his unhinged hysterical ranting before the Senate Committee right down to the most innocuous softball-like beat-sweetener fluff-piece Fox News interview (when you see Rapey McShoutyface butt in on his wife’s question cuz, hey, can’t let the missus have agency and speak for herself!; fuck no, she might fuck up his birthright!), find it damn hard to believe this guy ain’t who we thought he was.

    Again, to be clear, happy to be wrong.

  35. 35.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2018 at 7:34 am

    Uh huh
    Uh huh ? ?

    b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) Tweeted:
    The GOP sees rural voters as more legitimate than urban voters.

    https://t.co/1jbTPeJJWf https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1071446311076024320?s=17

  36. 36.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2018 at 7:36 am

    Ari Berman (@AriBerman) Tweeted:
    WI cutting early voting

    MI nullifying Election Day registration

    OH blocking new ballot initiatives

    NC passing new voter ID law

    FL stalling felon re-enfranchisement

    GOP shamelessly gutting voting rights before they lose power

    https://t.co/cKjkWwefkO https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1072166454458548226?s=17

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2018 at 7:37 am

    Uh huh ? ?

    Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) Tweeted:
    Sen. Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, doesn’t really care if Trump was “involved in crimes.”

    https://t.co/wNDsTnH3n5 https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/1072247184895156224?s=17

  38. 38.

    WereBear

    December 11, 2018 at 7:37 am

    @rikyrah: I fail to see the downside here.

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2018 at 7:38 am

    Anytime you can take real life and apply The Wire to it???

    Judah Maccabeets? (@AdamSerwer) Tweeted:
    My man literally taking notes on a criminal f***ing conspiracy

    https://t.co/UdHbV3QTBs https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/1072294052232654849?s=17

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2018 at 7:39 am

    @WereBear:
    Me either ??

  41. 41.

    satby

    December 11, 2018 at 7:42 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning ?!

    Thinking of Baud and his little girl.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2018 at 7:44 am

    @rikyrah: Republicans, the law and order party, somehow or other always think the rule of law is for those people.

  43. 43.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 11, 2018 at 7:48 am

    @rikyrah:

    Ari Berman (@AriBerman) Tweeted:
    WI cutting early voting

    MI nullifying Election Day registration

    OH blocking new ballot initiatives

    NC passing new voter ID law

    FL stalling felon re-enfranchisement

    GOP shamelessly gutting voting rights before they lose power

    (Lil preface: just riffing on the news you provided; my post not intended as a challenge or a criticism to you personally.)

    What is required, imo, in confronting our shameless, graceless age, is the political equivalent of Sherman’s March to the Sea.

    One of the many reasons, for me, why I chafe when I hear pols and citizens blanch at pursuing impeachment hearings (once, granted, the necessary investigations have borne their poison fruit and the passive uninformed public-at-large have been apprised of our actual situation).

    Holding the malefactors responsible is both good policy and good politics, cuz this shit must. not. stand.

    Sometimes principle and politics dovetail, and this, to me, is one of those moments.

  44. 44.

    kd bart

    December 11, 2018 at 7:49 am

    @p.a.: Our Lady of the Progressive Slots

  45. 45.

    WereBear

    December 11, 2018 at 7:53 am

    @Schlemazel: My favorite such story is:

    Dear Pammy, the cat really was sick!

  46. 46.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 11, 2018 at 7:53 am

    @Immanentize: You should read freshmen essays week after week. After a while, the point of your pen goes right through the paper.

  47. 47.

    raven

    December 11, 2018 at 8:04 am

    @Immanentize: Oooh, I have to steal that for my faculty learning communities!

  48. 48.

    JWR

    December 11, 2018 at 8:11 am

    @rikyrah:

    Grant Stern (@grantstern) Tweeted: House GOP minority leader Kevin McCarthy states that if campaign finance crimes are a violation then lots of Congressmen (probably in his caucus) will have to go.

    Adam Shift? Yep. He repeats it multiple times. I’ll bet he was thinking of Trump’s “Adam Schitt” Tweet when he said this. A-hole.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2018 at 8:11 am

    US to withdraw 2,200 troops deployed at Mexican border before midterms

    I am shocked, shocked I tell you.

  50. 50.

    rikyrah

    December 11, 2018 at 8:12 am

    TIME (@TIME) Tweeted:
    The Guardians—Jamal Khashoggi, the Capital Gazette, Maria Ressa, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo—are TIME’s Person of the Year 2018 #TIMEPOY

    https://t.co/HvoEaW5oUi https://t.co/9Mr0wBTmvj https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1072474968078893056?s=17

  51. 51.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    December 11, 2018 at 8:13 am

    Living former Democratic senators who didn’t sign: (to the best of my recollection), Begich, Mark Pryor, Boxer, Udall, Kaufman, Stone, Miller, Simon, Birch Bayh, Culver, Huddleston, Sarbanes, Riegle, Dayton, Carnahan, Reid, Rodman Clinton, Edwards, Boren, Wofford, Webb, Goodwin, Tim Johnson . Some of them might be dead and I forgot though, but I think the list is mostly complete

  52. 52.

    raven

    December 11, 2018 at 8:13 am

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: Yo, yea I’m here. We had a great time in 10,000 Islands. My buddy caught overslot red and snook and I lost a big snook when it swam right at the boat and spit the jig. We kayak fished out of Pine Isle but it was so windy we didn’t make much progress and had no hits. Here’s a silly video of a bunch of pelicans soaring above my yak.

  53. 53.

    zhena gogolia

    December 11, 2018 at 8:16 am

    @rikyrah:

    Beautiful. I hope people pay attention.

  54. 54.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 11, 2018 at 8:16 am

    Six smocking tweets this morning so far. Wall, caravan, some dude on Fox and Friends.

    Things have been crazy for a while now, but does it seem like the flood of crazy has deepened? That’s not just my impression?

  55. 55.

    bemused

    December 11, 2018 at 8:17 am

    @Elizabelle:

    The R’s who signed the letter seem to be of the old school Republicans who had moral and civic duty cores. David Durenberger, MN, has written a book “When Republicans Were Progressive” harking back to a time when R’s and D’s often worked together to make good ideas into policy.

  56. 56.

    JPL

    December 11, 2018 at 8:17 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Supposedly he’s going to use the military to build the wall. hahahaha

  57. 57.

    Amir Khalid

    December 11, 2018 at 8:17 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I’m not following you. How did the order benefit from the embezzlement?

  58. 58.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 11, 2018 at 8:18 am

    @rikyrah: I hope Trump takes that for the rebuke it’s undoubtedly meant to be.

  59. 59.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 11, 2018 at 8:20 am

    @rikyrah: I find his proposal acceptable.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2018 at 8:20 am

    @raven: Who’s the music from?

  61. 61.

    JWR

    December 11, 2018 at 8:21 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Things have been crazy for a while now, but does it seem like the flood of crazy has deepened?

    Boy howdy! The man is a freakin’ loon!

    ETA: Not to mention that he’s a very low IQ person.

  62. 62.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 11, 2018 at 8:24 am

    @Amir Khalid: I suspect it’s just Ozark’s generalized antipathy toward organized religion.

  63. 63.

    JPL

    December 11, 2018 at 8:25 am

    @raven: That was great.

  64. 64.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 11, 2018 at 8:26 am

    @raven:

    Morning, Raven. Heard your trip was a hoot and saw a coupla pics you posted (heartening seeing a pic of the joyous brotherhood of life-long friends; looks like you guys were having a blast!). Very glad for you.

    If uncomfortable divulging, no worries, but was wondering what port you went outta? And deets! It ain’t on the quiz, as my buddy likes to sez, but if you wanna deal deets, would love to hear some vignettes.

    Many moons ago a buddy and I canoed thru the Ten Thousand Islands. Kind’va forced March (pun intended), cuz it’s full-up that time a year n alla beachsites and chickees require you to stay for no more’n a day or two atta time. What was cool was I had done a piece on newbie sailiing a canoe, so had alla this gear for sailing mine. Hadda 16′ Mad River kevlar w/ash gunnels, cherry-red, justa handsome watercraft n a doughty water-mule. Winds were oft favorable, so we trolled whilst sailing n pickt up dinner fish long the way. Sharks at night. Snook n reds n trout in the day after making camp. (Jumped a tarpon onna jig but it cut thru the bite-leader after 15 min or so but not before getting three spectacular gill-shaking aerial launches.)

    Hadn’t any experience sailing previously, but the experience was inspirin’; when I finally moved up from my original traditional commercial fishing vessel, gotta fishboat that were also a sailboat. Love it.

    Again, no worries if you haven’t the time or inclination. Just vicariously innerested in hearing ’bout a place I love if you wanna share.

  65. 65.

    JPL

    December 11, 2018 at 8:27 am

    CBS this morning has a segment called note to self. Here is Michelle Obama reading hers. Take a peek.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    December 11, 2018 at 8:27 am

    @JoeyJoeJoe: Also no former Senators Obama, Biden, or Clinton. Or Al Gore. Maybe for non-distraction reasons.

    And there could be more who sign on, in coming weeks. The message is pretty clear.

    @bemused: In their hearts, I think some of those Senators are as sick as we are of what has become of their party.

  67. 67.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2018 at 8:28 am

    @Amir Khalid: The Catholic church is an ongoing criminal conspiracy and all involved are complicit. To repeat myself:

    I say smack the shit out of them for all the other times they got away with it.

    Which is something a nun once said to me after mistakenly smacking me upside the head for something somebody else did.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    December 11, 2018 at 8:28 am

    @ Baud: good morning, and you are in my thoughts.

    (Baud has a severely ailing pet.)

  69. 69.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 8:32 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    Frankly first year law student essay exams are like that too….

  70. 70.

    Yarrow

    December 11, 2018 at 8:32 am

    Good morning, all! I see I missed the fun threads last night.

    Good to see things are moving along quickly. For almost two years I’ve been confident these traitors will be taken down and they will pay. Never wavered on that. Glad to see we’re finally seeing things start to come together. Tick tock, you traitorous motherfuckers. Spend that time with your family now because you won’t see much of them once you’re in prison.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    December 11, 2018 at 8:32 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Things have been crazy for a while now, but does it seem like the flood of crazy has deepened? That’s not just my impression?

    My impression too. It looks (from the outside) like it’s getting more insular too- circling the wagons. Jared and Ivanka taking the reins.

    Maybe he doesn’t need a COS. He has his family members. Yuck. So gross. One bright spot! I’m confident they’ll do a terrible job and hasten the inevitable reckoning, which will be a relief. It gets worse before it gets better, so I want to get on with the worse.

  72. 72.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 8:35 am

    @raven: same guy, Gerry, used to also say, “It’s a fast train to Christmas!”. Which is so true! At new faculty orientation (and at pretty much every summer FLC,) I use this to remind newer folks not to overcommit in the Fall semester because, well, like Gerry said — everything flies by at warp speed and then you are grading.

  73. 73.

    tobie

    December 11, 2018 at 8:36 am

    For no reason I can discern, the Sunrise Movement held a second sit in in Nancy Pelosi’s office yesterday with Ocasio-Cortez’s and Tlaib’s support under the banner “No more excuses.” (The first was “Step Up or Step Aside”.) Sunrise authored the Green New Deal proposal, which contains laudable but also utterly unrealistic plans like “decarbonize all manufacturing, agriculture and other industries” within ten years. Even the IPCC, which are no slouches when it comes to climate change, have set a target date of 2050. I’ve always found it strange that AOC has now made climate change her signature issue, when she didn’t talk about it once during her campaign. So, a little bit of sleuthing revealed the Sunrise Mvmt was founded by alumni of the Sanders campaign. Wilmer will make the “green new deal” a central plank of his 2020 Presidential bid. There are many reasons to support an ambitious green economy plan. But the Green New Deal is so ambitious as to be almost meaningless and will likely hurt more than the help the environmental movement. Lobster Ragnarok has cottoned on to what’s going on:

    ‏@eclecticbrotha
    So-called leftists and progressives are agitated and making a bunch of desperation moves because they fear their loss of relevance.

    @mgranville1
    Thus the move away from M4A to The Green New Deal. They are spinning to come up with a new narrative that keeps them in the news. But moving on to a movement that has been historically led by white men is not a good look.

  74. 74.

    Eric S.

    December 11, 2018 at 8:36 am

    @Elizabelle: Nice bolding of Holy Joe.

  75. 75.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 11, 2018 at 8:38 am

    @raven:

    Ha! Tx. If I’da just shut my prolix pie-hole, I’da seen you already responded. Trip sounds fab — and the ones the get away always have the consolation of growing ever larger!

    Pelicans is inneresting critters. Browns dive from altitude to feed and whites don’t, but the whites are fun to watch when they group up and form a bustling noisy phalanx proceed thru the water in disjointed unison, scooping n dabbling their way to gastronomic victory.

    Liked the musical accompaniment to yer vid.

  76. 76.

    Jeffro

    December 11, 2018 at 8:43 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    The Post published an op-ed last night signed by a bipartisan group of 44 former U.S. senators. It urges the current/future senate to put the nation’s interests ahead of party or self interest.

    The Senatortoise from Kentucky and his venal, spineless crew won’t heed their former colleagues’ plea anytime soon, of course — Trump is rocket fuel to push their plutocratic agenda, and that’s more important to them than the country.

    But I’m glad the ex-pols weighed in. It’s an accumulation of small but extraordinary gestures like that which can make the formerly unthinkable thinkable.

    I saw that & I’m tweeting it out every hour or so, noting that it is “Absolutely unprecedented and long overdue”. Wake. Up. GOP enablers!

    Meanwhile, Orrin Hatch is excusing Trumpov’s crimes because, well, they’re Republican crimes…at least the WaPo is calling him right out on it.

    I was thinking today that with all that is coming out and in motion
    1) It’s good having been completely right for the past 30 months – Trumpov didn’t “happen to benefit” – even if the RWNJs won’t admit it just yet
    2) It’s good knowing that one way or another, this clown is not going to get re-elected and likely will have to negotiate his early exit from the WH
    3) For that…realizing that the odds are high that Trumpov will stay put and try everything to keep from being impeached…I think there’s now a nonzero chance that he ends up fleeing the country, and an even greater nonzero chance that he flips on his own people in the end, lays out the whole scam and all the players. He just doesn’t strike me as someone who’ll go down alone (especially if it reduces his prison time/RICO forfeitures)

    We’ll see. I still see him at that police interrogation room table, taking it from the top for Mueller’s team: “I first began laundering money for the Russian mob back in 1994…”

  77. 77.

    Cermet

    December 11, 2018 at 8:44 am

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: Don’t think you are but we can dream.

  78. 78.

    Honus

    December 11, 2018 at 8:45 am

    @JPL: my dad was playing a slot machine at the local yacht club (yes, we had a yacht club on the Ohio River in West Virginia) My brother, who was 12 at the time asked to play. Dad decided to teach him a lesson and gave him a quarter (which was good money for a kid in 1962) and said “you can keep this or play the slot machine”
    Of course my brother hit the jackpot on his first try. He grew up to be a venture capitalist.

  79. 79.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 8:45 am

    So, Google is getting rid of Allo, which the Immp and I use — far more penetration than messenger in coverage weak spots with WiFi.

    Sure wish they’d also get rid of the “authentic frontier jibberish” app. It seems to only work about a half of the time.

  80. 80.

    Raven

    December 11, 2018 at 8:45 am

    @Immanentize: talk about overcommit! We’ve run two online FLC’s the past two years. We are now doing 52 f2f at 26 institutions!

  81. 81.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 11, 2018 at 8:46 am

    @Jeffro: I think his attorneys will plead diminished capacity and they may be right.

  82. 82.

    bemused

    December 11, 2018 at 8:48 am

    @Elizabelle:

    I think so too but many of them are from a way back era which is just another example how the GOP has willingly debauched their own party.

  83. 83.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 11, 2018 at 8:48 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Yes and no. As an atheist I hold no love or hate for organized religion in general, but my loathing for the Catholic Church is very personal and legendary in it’s scope.

  84. 84.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 8:49 am

    @Raven: Whoa! Good on you, but yes, serious time and effort there.

    ETA Do you change the FLC topics every time it’s offered?

  85. 85.

    Raven

    December 11, 2018 at 8:50 am

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: it’s stock iMovie music. Did you see the stills I put up yesterday am? My snook was intense, I don’t think I was prepared for the speed of the hit. We were using really light tackle and it busted laterally and I too had the hook set. It turned straight at the boat, dove and spit the hook.

  86. 86.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 8:53 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    I think it will be more like Reagan — we should just sort of forget his crimes because he has decompensated so much. This I think is the way for folks close to him to ease him away from running for a second term. You know, have him decide to step aside because of the great curse of dimentia….

    Ha! Never gonna happen.

  87. 87.

    Yarrow

    December 11, 2018 at 8:54 am

    @tobie: Someone posted about this yesterday and it sure looks like ratfucking. Someone needs to look into who is funding the Sunrise Movement. If it’s former Sanders people then have a look a Russia.

  88. 88.

    Honus

    December 11, 2018 at 8:54 am

    @Elizabelle: lesser known story than Macaca, but to me even more illustrative of who George Allen is. As governor, fter a visit to the state prison in the mountains outside Grundy, he ordered the large glass windows in the cafeteria painted over so the prisoners couldn’t enjoy the view.

  89. 89.

    raven

    December 11, 2018 at 8:54 am

    @Immanentize: Here’s what we are up to, it’s part of a huge initiative to try to help faculty help students. I’m in my last year and serving as an organizer and doing some tech work. It’s already going way better than I had thought but it’s going to be at least a three year effort so we’ll see.

  90. 90.

    artem1s

    December 11, 2018 at 8:57 am

    @Cermet:

    Not that he won’t do all to restrict Roe

    I think they have decided to bypass killing PP altogether. They are actively funneling HHS money into abstinence and natural method clinics run by the Christian Taliban anyway. Roe isn’t going to be eliminated by killing PP. It’s going to be killed by Religious exception laws in Red states ruled by friendly governors. We’re good Christians, we don’t have to inform our patients of all their health care options. DeWine is likely to rubber stamp a heart beat law that will criminalize using any kind of abortifact – or anything resembling an abortifact. And then they will start to send women to jail. Choice died when SCOTUS ruled on Hobby Lobby. The next step will be to expand that ruling and use it as precedence to overturn separation of church and state rulings.

  91. 91.

    Yarrow

    December 11, 2018 at 9:03 am

    @Jeffro:

    I think there’s now a nonzero chance that he ends up fleeing the country,

    This is one of those issues where being President is going to be a problem for him. He can’t go anywhere without the massive security detail The President is required to have. He won’t be allowed to get in just any plane because it’s not safe for The President. Air Force One pilots and the rest of the crew are military personnel and do not work directly for Trump. They will not fly him to a foreign country to escape.

    Shorter: he’s trapped.

  92. 92.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 9:05 am

    @raven: That is a huge scale!

    Here’s what we are doing in our shop
    We started them when I was VP for Faculty — and they are still thankfully going strong. We invite folks from other area schools to join us, but it is mostly an internal project.

  93. 93.

    GregB

    December 11, 2018 at 9:08 am

    I am starting to see that the GOP is running out of runway in their fealty to Trump. Sen. Kennedy is claiming the prosecution of Cohen is faulty because he is a liar. He is a liar who recorded and saved everything.

    All of these disgusting, pampered, rich old men will be left jabbering in the wind as Mueller drops shit-hammer after shit-hammer.

    A hard rain is gonna come.

  94. 94.

    raven

    December 11, 2018 at 9:11 am

    @Immanentize: Wow, great work! I’m in awe of real “faculty developers”. I came to this through the back door after years of online course development. We offered day-long f2f workshops and then went to online via conferencing tools. The world of flc’s really appeals to me but I worry about the dinosaurs who don’t think they have anything to learn about anything. Too late for me to do much but what we are doing but I’ll be interested to see where it goes.

  95. 95.

    tobie

    December 11, 2018 at 9:14 am

    @Yarrow: Oops…I may have mispoken. The group says it took direction from the Sanders’ organizing strategy:

    Much of our foundational frameworks for Sunrise came from the Momentum model, which is a hybrid of mass protest and structure-based organizing, as described in Paul and Mark Engler’s book, “This Is an Uprising.” From there, we improvised and pulled together thinking from different parts of the left, especially after the election. We took direction from the Bernie Sanders campaign — specifically its innovations on volunteer-led, decentralized teams and structures.

    Their endorsements were limited to OurRevolution/JusticeDem candidates.

    What bothers me with the Sunrise Movement is not the possibility of Russian money. It’s the my-way-or-the-highway approach to environmental legislation. They’ve ignored the members of Congress who’ve worked most on climate policy for years (Bonamici, de Fazio, etc.); insisted on having their own special committee rather than joining forces with other committees (specifically the committee on energy and commerce) which already have a smart grid plan in the works; and in not acknowledging the difficulty, time and economic pain of switching entirely to renewables, they’re raising expectations that will lead to disappointment and eventual defections from the cause. Fighting climate change is going to be a LONG HAUL and promising magic solutions is not preparing people for what will be a long slog with many achievements but also major setbacks along the way.

  96. 96.

    Elizabelle

    December 11, 2018 at 9:14 am

    @GregB:
    @Jeffro:

    Yup. Peeling the Republicans and their excuses back like an onion. With a particularly rotted and fetid core.

    Picking up steam.

    Also: Orrin Hatch for Chief of Staff. What a piker. They’re just trying to excuse this stuff away because they did not want to see it.

    True for the media too. Look here: our expose on _____! Don’t look at what credulous jackasses we were for so long, taking dictation from GOP handlers and shining it up so nice and pretty.

    Clean the ranks.

  97. 97.

    tobie

    December 11, 2018 at 9:17 am

    @tobie: I forgot to mention that the Sunrise Movement has never held a sit-in at Republican Congressman’s office. Their ire seems to be directed entirely at the “Dem establishment.”

  98. 98.

    JPL

    December 11, 2018 at 9:17 am

    @Honus: amazing!

  99. 99.

    raven

    December 11, 2018 at 9:21 am

    @Immanentize: What is this? “Photovoice in Service Learning”

  100. 100.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 11, 2018 at 9:21 am

    @Raven: If the stills in question was one of a boatside POV of a mangrove slough n t’other was three spry beaming boyish-looking men of a certain age delighting in e/o’s company, then ya, saw ’em.

    Allus likes to sez if tarpon fought like snooks does, we’d never catch’em. Snook, as you well know, is gotta finely honed sense of how to use their strength to its best advantage amid cover n structure.

    Gotta lil snook story. ‘Bout ten year back, was on Cayo Costa Island w/a buddy and his fish-crazy ten-y/o boy.

    Kid was a purist. Now, I likes light tackle, too; fly or spin, generly go with 8-pound-test n a bite leader, 12- to 15-pound (mostly cuz a ladyfish; heavier if targeting tarpon). The kid insisted on using 6-pound-mono w/*no* bite leader, outfitted w/a 1/4-oz. marabou jig.

    So we’re fishing the gulfside, sunny w/a refreshing light breeze, barefoot, feelin fine, catching lotta trout n the occasional small red n snook, when Ely hooks up to a marvelous snook. As you well know, the raspy mouth n gill rakers of a snook can abrade much heavier bite leader under pressure, so Ely is first of all lucky in the hookup (corner of the mouth, line completely out), and he’s playing it beautifully. After about 20 min, he’s got it within sight, ’bout 30 feet out in the gentle surf, Ely walking along the beach, paralleling it so the line don’t get crossways the bidness end. The snook is prolly twenty pounds, perhaps just under. His dad following along, offering encouragement, looking on w/a beatific smile, just so happy for his boy (who is on the edge of hyperventilating he’s so fucking excited). Everyone’s totally into it.

    And then, like Moses parting the Red Sea, a 9-foot bull shark cleaves the water in the surf in water perhaps 4-feet deep at most. The snook senses the shark, abandons the surf, n heads for deeper water. Dear old dad actually (ridiculously but heat of the moment) jumped in the water to shoo the shark. The shark was neither impressed nor interested, and pursued the fleeing snook. Ely is frantic! He’s literally gasping for breath and having a hard time maintaining smooth motor function.

    After what seems an excruciating coupla moments, Ely starts gaining line, limply. He offers optimistically: “Maybe he got away?!”

    Well, some things a person’s just gotta learn for themselves. Don’t neither his dad nor me say nothing, and after Ely retrieves enough line, he sees, lolling about lifelessly in the surf, the monstrous shark-bitten head of his beautiful snook.

    And then, when he picked it up outta the surf and regarded his loss, the most sweet, innocent tears you ever saw began pouring down a heart-broken boy’s face.

    It were sad, course. But it were also beautiful. And makes for a better story.

    (Just not for the snook.)

  101. 101.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 9:21 am

    @raven:

    the dinosaurs who don’t think they have anything to learn about anything.

    To paraphrase Max Planck: “Science Education progresses one funeral at a time.”

  102. 102.

    Yarrow

    December 11, 2018 at 9:23 am

    @tobie:

    What bothers me with the Sunrise Movement is not the possibility of Russian money. It’s the my-way-or-the-highway approach to environmental legislation.

    But these things are one and the same, essentially. Russia funds all sorts of organizations with the goal of those organizations creating negative effects in US society and government.

    So there are people already working on climate change in Congress? Great! Let’s form an organization (or fund an already existing one) that will ignore their work, ask for unrealistic results and then cause chaos when things don’t happen. It’s not the money itself; it’s what the people are expected to do with the money that’s the problem.

  103. 103.

    raven

    December 11, 2018 at 9:25 am

    @Immanentize: TWO fantastic quotes! Are you the director?

  104. 104.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 9:27 am

    @raven: Photovoice is an offshoot of the education documentation movement (which started as a primary school movement in Italy, I think). The idea is to use photography to document (and later display) the steps of learning, the outcomes, and the impacts. It’s like photojournalusm, but is directed at a group or community. Someone described it to me as performing a SWOT analysis with pictures.

  105. 105.

    raven

    December 11, 2018 at 9:30 am

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: That is awesome! A guy next to me caught this big snapper and it was right next to the boat when. . .

  106. 106.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 9:31 am

    @raven: Here is an article about Photovoice methods and goals

  107. 107.

    raven

    December 11, 2018 at 9:31 am

    @Immanentize: Cool!!!

  108. 108.

    Bobby Thomson

    December 11, 2018 at 9:33 am

    @Yarrow: probably too vain to pull a Bush the Elder and sneak out. And too delusional.

  109. 109.

    Immanentize

    December 11, 2018 at 9:33 am

    @raven: I used to be the Director’s supervisor. We have had the BEST directors. Amazing people. But when the family tragedy started, I was lucky to step back. I am just a faculty member now, but I do whatever I can whenever I can for our CTSE.

  110. 110.

    Elizabelle

    December 11, 2018 at 9:34 am

    Really good story from this week’s WaPost Food section: had you ever heard of Jack Monroe, a Brit who writes cookbooks and blogs on how people with very little money can cook and eat well, mostly with canned goods? A find for austerity Britain and anyone who likes good food, but cannot or will not spend much money. Perhaps a limited kitchen and pantry, too.

    Jack is “binary-gendered”, was raising a toddler son when she quit a job and could not, to her dismay, find another. She is most resourceful though, as you will see.

    William Booth, WaPost: Canned foods helped her through poverty. Now Britain’s ‘Tin Can Cook’ inspires others with her budget recipes.

    Good recipe for a black beans and peaches stew. Gonna try this one next. [Nepalese] Black Bean Tarkari.

    Carrot, Cumin and Kidney Bean Burgers

    The recipe that changed her life? That exploded on social media and turned her into a food impresario? Her Carrot, Cumin and Kidney Bean Burgers, which she can make for 9 pence apiece — or about 12 cents.

    Her blog, with recipes: Tin Can Cook (URL is actually cooking on a bootstrap)

  111. 111.

    raven

    December 11, 2018 at 9:39 am

    @Immanentize: Fascinating, my bride was a public health worker with a background in adult ed and she focused on breastfeeding and teen pregnancy issues. This would have been useful.

  112. 112.

    raven

    December 11, 2018 at 9:41 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: iMovie has a number of “jingles” that are copyright free and pretty easy to insert.

  113. 113.

    raven

    December 11, 2018 at 9:43 am

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: Great story, the dude next to men on a boat had this big snapper almost out of the water. . . almost. This was after the mate cleaned what meat he could.

  114. 114.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    December 11, 2018 at 9:43 am

    @raven: It’s a tough world down there!

    Had similar occur in Bimini n Fla. Keys with barracudas, tho they shear purty cleanly more’n strip ragged.

    Gotta goofy story with me as the (no surprise) fool ’bout barras for perhaps another time, but gon’ sign out now.

    Glad your trip was a delight. Am hoping will be in south Fla. by mid-to-late Jan. If ya, will give you a report.

    (Was gonna be there this month but had the not-so-bright idea to do a coupla boat projects that I didn’t think would take very long that … are gonna –surprise! — take awhile; in my meager defense, am waiting onna welder who went awol on me, but they don’t callem “fabricators” for nuttin!)

  115. 115.

    Citizen Alan

    December 11, 2018 at 9:46 am

    @tobie:

    I forgot to mention that the Sunrise Movement has never held a sit-in at Republican Congressman’s office. Their ire seems to be directed entirely at the “Dem establishment.”

    Well of course it is. They know perfectly well that the response of any GOoPer they protested would be to point and laugh at them and then have them arrested.

  116. 116.

    MobiusKlein

    December 11, 2018 at 9:57 am

    @Amir Khalid: Other folks in the order might ALSO be embezzling.
    And nor want the rocks turned over. Or merely their own gross incompetence exposed.
    If the controls on cash are lax, the order is committing fraud on the donors.

  117. 117.

    Yarrow

    December 11, 2018 at 10:07 am

    @Bobby Thomson: I don’t think they’d let him.

    @Elizabelle: That’s cool. Thanks.

  118. 118.

    Jeffro

    December 11, 2018 at 10:32 am

    @Yarrow:

    Air Force One pilots and the rest of the crew are military personnel and do not work directly for Trump. They will not fly him to a foreign country to escape.

    They’re military…they will follow his orders.

    And it doesn’t even have to be a last-minute action thriller escape, either. He could just schedule a ‘normal’ jaunt to Russia, step off the plane, and declare he’s staying.

    (still only a 1% chance though, so no use gaming it all out, I suppose)

  119. 119.

    Amir Khalid

    December 11, 2018 at 10:56 am

    @MobiusKlein:
    Investigate the order, then. And then deal with any wrongdoing uncovered in the process.

  120. 120.

    Yarrow

    December 11, 2018 at 10:59 am

    @Jeffro: Not if it’s an illegal order, which an escape to Russia would be.

    He’s not going to get to go to Russia. If that even begins to look like it’s happening, other things will start to happen to prevent him from going. Ditto with any other Russian-friendly state that might accommodate him.

  121. 121.

    Amir Khalid

    December 11, 2018 at 11:01 am

    @Jeffro:
    US Military personnel, as in any country, are bound by law to refuse an illegal order. An order to fly POTUS to Russia so he can defect sounds clearly illegal to me.

  122. 122.

    kd bart

    December 11, 2018 at 11:45 am

    @Citizen Alan: You earn more street cred with the cool kids by attacking your own side.

  123. 123.

    J R in WV

    December 11, 2018 at 1:24 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Guys, he could go to the Davos conference in Switzerland and ask for asylum there. As long as there is no indictment (I know, that could happen in mere moments) the Swiss would be inclined to allow him to stay. Like Marc Rich…

  124. 124.

    billcinsd

    December 11, 2018 at 7:53 pm

    @Elizabelle: Pressler ran for Senate again in SD in 2016 as an independent

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